Thursday, September 29, 2016

City of Hope and Ruin by Kit Campbell and Siri Paulson - Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The authors will be awarding a $50 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Five Things You Probably Don't Know About Kit Campbell

First of all, thanks for having me! Well, and Siri, but she’s not writing this so she’s mostly here in spirit (and probably in the comments). Let’s see—five things you probably wouldn’t guess about me.

1. I did a short stint as a rider for Westernaires, which is a trick-riding group in Colorado. There was a wait list a mile long to get in, so I guess my mother stuck us on it, just in case it was something we wanted to do at some point in our lives. So now I can say that I have galloped across an arena on a horse (not on purpose) and my sister can say that she’s held on to a bucking horse long enough to place pretty decently in a rodeo (also not on purpose). It was an interesting experience, but I learned that I was not really a horse person and trick riding was so not my thing. Also, horses are jerks.

2. Along with strange stints I did when I was younger, I was also a model for JCPenney as a teenager. I’m not sure how that happened exactly. My parents signed us up for weird things. I got to do the catwalk in a fashion show and everything. Bet you didn’t know JCPenney even did fashion shows. Neither did I.

3. Once, in college, I tripped going up the stairs. Well, I mean, I probably tripped up the stairs more than once, but on this particular occasion my shoe fell off, and instead of falling down the stairs, as one would expect, my shoe flew up and hit me in the head. Be clumsy enough, and you too can break the laws of physics. Of course, someone I knew was right behind me and saw the whole thing, so there’s something I’ve never lived down.

4. We went to Hawaii for our honeymoon, and on our last day, we decided to rent some snorkels and go snorkeling in the bay next to our hotel, which happened to have a pretty nice coral reef in it. At one point this little fish, maybe 8 or 9 inches long, gets in my face. I was like, “Pssh, what are you going to do, dude? I could eat you for dinner.” And this fish swims around me and BITES ME IN THE LEG. This was a bite bite too—broke the skin, bled, welted up and bruised. When I went to the lifeguard to make sure there were no venomous fish I should be worried about, he said, “Oh! You’re the third person that fish has bitten today!” It was 9:30 in the morning. I later learned that it was a humuhumunukunukuapua’a, which is the state fish of Hawaii. Guess Hawaii felt it was time for us to go home too.

5. When I was 8 or 9, my cousins (all younger than me) and I were hanging out at my grandparents, and we saw some spotlights in the sky. None of us knew what they were, but I decided to tell my cousins that it was a UFO come to abduct us. They ran inside, presumably to tell their parents, and I decided to hide so they’d think I’d been abducted. I hid for at least an hour. My cousins were terrified. I got in a ton of trouble, but I still think it was probably worth it.

Thanks again for having us, and I hope you guys pick up City of Hope and Ruin and give it a try! Siri and I also have two related short stories up over at Turtleduck Press which you can read for free! So what are you waiting for?

Every night the monsters hunt.

A city that is the whole world: Theosophy and her companions in the City militia do their best to protect the civilians from the monsters, but they keep crawling from the Rift and there’s nowhere to run. Theosophy knows she’ll die fighting. It’s the best kind of death she’s seen, and at least she can save lives in the meantime.

They say the Scarred carve you up while you’re still alive.

A village in the shadow of a forest: Refugees from the border whisper about the oncoming Scarred, but Briony can’t convince her brother to relocate his children to safety. Briony will do anything to protect them. She owes them that much, even if it means turning to forbidden magic.

When Theosophy and Briony accidentally make contact across the boundaries of their worlds, they realize that solutions might finally be within reach. A world beyond the City would give Theosophy’s people an escape, and the City’s warriors could help Briony protect her family from the Scarred. Each woman sees in the other a strength she lacks—and maybe something more.

All they need to do is find a way across the dimensions to each other before their enemies close in.

Read an excerpt:

The spirit was beautiful, a tall, statuesque woman who had a hard glint in her eyes. Her hair was short, indigo blue through the glow and tightly curled, her skin a lighter shade over wiry muscles. One hand clenched a smallish item made of metal, the other a long tube with some kind of blade on the end. Briony had never seen anyone like her. Though she glanced around and held her body like someone expecting danger, her bearing was proud and strong, and every inch of her spoke of power and competency. A warrior. Briony had heard stories of them, left over from the Great War, but had never seen one herself.

Was that when this woman was from? The War?

“The trio—the monsters—where am I?”

Briony realized she hadn’t responded, and that perhaps this spirit had been looking for someone to talk to for a very long time, and maybe she would assume Briony couldn’t see or hear her either. “Don’t be afraid,” she said.

The spirit's eyebrows rose. "That's a...never mind. What is this place?"

“Well,” Briony started, taking a step forward. But her ankle buckled and she stumbled, managing to catch herself before she fell.

“You’re injured,” said the spirit. “Were you attacked?”

“Yes—you see, there was a Fracture back there, and—” Confusion crossed the spirit’s face. Maybe she was even older; maybe she didn’t know about the War.

About the Authors: It is a little known fact that Kit was raised in the wild by a marauding gang of octopuses. It wasn't until she was 25 that she was discovered by a traveling National Geographic scientist and brought back to civilization. This is sometimes apparent in the way that she attempts to escape through tubes when startled.

Her transition to normalcy has been slow, but scientists predict that she will have mastered basics such as fork use sometime in the next year. More complex skills, such as proper grocery store etiquette, may be forever outside her reach.

Siri Paulson writes all over the fantasy and science fiction spectrum, including (so far) secondary-world fantasy, urban fantasy, steampunk, Gothic, historical paranormal, and YA with spaceships. She is also the chief editor at Turtleduck Press (http://turtleduckpress.com/). Siri grew up in Alberta, Canada, but now lives in an old house in Toronto. By day, she edits non-fiction for the government. Her other current passion is contra dance, a social/folk dance done to live Celtic and roots music. Her favourite places in the world are the Canadian Rocky Mountains and a little valley in Norway.

Mai - Good question! I'm lucky enough to have a home office, so I usually write there, sometime between 9 and 11 in the evening (I have a day job as well). Every couple of weeks I visit a coffee shop for a change of pace.

I like to have my other senses occupied when I write, so I often listen to a particular playlist of classical music and have a mildly caffeinated drink (hot chocolate, root beer, tea) or chocolate-covered almonds by my side.

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